Sources: Bush Picks Csx Chairman To Lead Treasury

WASHINGTON — President Bush has chosen CSX Corp. Chairman John W. Snow as the new secretary of the Treasury, administration sources said Sunday night.

Snow, of Richmond, Va., has accepted the job and will be nominated as long as nothing disqualifying turns up in the final stages of the White House's legal and financial review, the sources said.

Snow is chairman, president and chief executive officer of CSX, a freight and transportation conglomerate that is based in Richmond and operates the largest rail freight network in the eastern United States.

Snow is to replace Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who was fired by Bush on Friday along with chief economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, as the administration attempts an urgent midterm correction to boost the flagging economy as the 2004 campaign season begins.

Administration officials said Snow, 63, was picked partly for a skill that they saw as most lacking in O'Neill, an ability to communicate Bush's policy clearly on television and Capitol Hill. The officials also cited Snow's familiarity with Washington policy-makers and his record in business beyond New York, which the White House refers to as "Main Street experience."

Snow, a solid Republican with ties to moderate Democrats, is known as a glass-smooth salesman who doesn't need staff members to provide him details during interviews and meetings. He was a tireless champion of deregulation when he was deputy undersecretary at the Transportation Department under President Ford. Vice President Dick Cheney, who led the selection process for O'Neill's successor, was chief of staff under Ford.

Snow, a native of Toledo, Ohio, did his undergraduate work at Kenyon College and the University of Toledo and earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Virginia in 1965 and a law degree from George Washington University in 1967.